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11:34 a.m. - 2006-09-17
Nano-Management

The March of the Red Folder

Hi�.I�m still alive�.just to darned busy to check in more than once in a while. I am keeping up now and then with you all though�maybe someday I�ll have writing time again. Anyway�.Here�s something I just had to write about.

We have a term for my bosses management style. You�ve heard of �micro-management�?......This guy is a practitioner of �Nano-management��.he is unbelievable and his management style is the reason I no longer have a life.

The other day he got an idea. He gathered the whole office around. In his hand was a red folder.

�Everyone needs to go the supply cabinet and get a red folder� he announced in his Jack Benny voice. �The red folders are only to be used for prioritys. From now on, when one of you has something so important that it need to be done immediately, put it in a red folder and hand carry it to Paula.� �Paula� he said pointing the hand with the red folder in it at me. �you are to immediately stop whatever you are doing and take the red folder and execute the direction inside of it�..when you are finished with the task, you take the red folder back to the originator, signifying that you have completed the task.�

I imagined a line of people constantly coming at me with red folders as everyone always rearranges the stuff on my table so their stuff is on top.

�Any questions?� Joe asked�..�Good�

Joe went back to his office.

Greg appeared at my desk. �Pretend I have a red folder� he said, waving a paper at me. �I need this done NOW.�

�Go get a red folder� I said.

�Don�t have time� he replied.

I went to the supply cabinet and got a red folder, completed the task and took the purchase order in the red folder to Joe for approval. He took the red folder, signed the paperwork and marched up to the front of the office and stood 10 feet away from my desk with the red folder.

�Ahem�, he said trying to get everyone�s attention. �Everyone�listen up. I have the first red folder. The task has been executed and I have approved it. It is now ready for the next step.�

After making sure all eyes were upon him, Joe reverently held the red folder out in front of him and fixed his gaze upon it. He slowly marched it to my desk on it's virgin trip across the office back to my desk. He never took his eyes from it. Surely this was a historic moment in our corporate history.

I took the empty red folder and put it on Greg�s desk, completing the first red folder circuit.

�There, now you have a red folder.� I told Greg.

At the end of the first day, James came to me with a red folder. In it was a purchase requisition for a $12.00 item that he needed a PO for so that he could run right out and pick it up, enabling the guys in the back to proceed with a very important job. It was only a $12.00 item but, hey, it was holding up the job�.therefore, important and worthy of a red folder. I carried out the task and signed the order (I am allowed to approve small orders). Joe noticed James backing out the door with a red folder.

�What�s in that red folder he shouted?�

�A PO for a $12.00 bolt he is going to pick up I shouted back.�

�The red folders are not to be used for $12.00 items.� He exclaimed, eyes wide.

�You never put a dollar limit on the red folder tasks.� I bantered back

James was just trying to get out the door as fast as he could and escaped with the red folder before Joe could stop him. For the next 15 minutes Joe went on and on about the $12.00 item and how red folders were not to leave the office.

James returned with the red folder safely in his hands�thank God, he didn�t lose it,.

The next day, no one brought me red folders. They resumed there usual method of rearranging my pile so their stuff was on the top when I wasn�t looking. Joe appeared at my desk with an urgent task he needed completed.

�Where�s your red folder?� I questioned.

�Well, I don�t have one with me and it�s ok because it�s me�you have to stop whatever you are doing to do what I want you to do no matter what you have going on.� He said as he bobbed his head up and down in a yes motion.

I couldn�t resist the urge to roll my eyes, he didn�t seem to notice. I completed his task.

Later that day, Greg yelled through the window of his office. �I sent you an email.�

I said, �Ok, I�ll get to it in a while.�

�Fine.� He said.

Several hours later I opened up his email. The first sentence, all in caps was PAULA�.THIS IS A RED FOLDER ISSUE. There was no urgency in his voice when he told me he sent the email.

Should I tell him he should have put it in a red folder? I thought�..nah!

Anybody want to buy a box of red folders?

P. I. Yarnsmith


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